Dear PropellerHeads: It seems like every other day I hear about a new Web browser version being released. What's the deal?

A: The deal is that Internet Explorer's blood is in the water and the Crested Chrome, Frilled Firefox, Ornate Opera and Sailfin Safari are all looking to feast! In the last two years, Internet Explorer has lost a considerable 14 percent market share, principally to Chrome and Safari. Though in fairness, those browsers show more impact because they are used in all of those smartphone things you see attached to people's fingers.

Another reason is that Firefox has adopted a Rapid Release Schedule that will release a new version of the browser about every quarter. It did so primarily because it felt itself becoming downright Microsoftian, in that the time between releases was too slow.

Also, Firefox 8 looks way better to the layman than Firefox 4, which lasted precisely three months. I kid you not when I say that Firefox 8 will be available before the end of the year. Whew! Who knew a term like "so yesterday" would end up being "so literal?"

Let's enumerate the latest versions for you before going further: Chrome 12, Firefox 5, Internet Explorer 9, Opera 11.5 and Safari 5. OK, so are all of these new browser releases actually doing anything other than jacking up the version number? From an end-user perspective (that would be you, by the way), not so much.

In general, all of the browsers have gone in the direction of Chrome, which is to provide as little clutter to your browsing experience as possible. That means tabs, that means no more menus, that means that entering something into the location field will search your bookmarks and history too.

They also make private browsing easily available so you can look at questionable content and the rest of the world won't know it's you. I might be too straight-laced or less paranoid than most to have found a use for this particular feature.

They are all copying features from each other so much so (and so quickly), there isn't much difference any more. Case in point: look for tabs to be stacked, grouped or similarly organized in the near future because Opera just did it. In fact, as far a trendsetter goes, Opera is king. I often see things in Opera before I see them in other browsers. For instance, I like their left-side tab orientation with page preview. Slick.

The bulk of the focus these past few months has been on making each of the browsers lean, mean fighting machines so that they will render pages faster and use less memory doing so. They have also spent quite a bit of effort adding support for HTML5 and CSS3. And third has been making them more secure, but let's be honest with ourselves - a totally secure Web browser is about as likely as us not electing a collective bunch of morons to run this country.

Anyway, the browsers then run themselves through a series of benchmark tests in order to prove to us that they have the fastest browser and the best standards support, only to be dethroned in a couple of weeks by one of the other browsers. And the cycle continues.

That may sound cynical, but actually I'm really excited and am trembling with anticipation about where we'll be a year from now if this is truly the golden age of Web browsers.

Don't worry. Let the updates come and enjoy the ride. And if you are not enjoying the ride with your particular browser, now is the time to take another one out for a test run.

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.